Coexistence of epitaxial lattice rotation and twinning tilt induced by surface symmetry mismatch...

Combined x-ray diffraction and first-principles studies of various epitaxial rutile-type metal dioxide films on Al2O3(0001) substrates reveal an unexpected rectangle-on-parallelogram heteroepitaxy. Unique matching of particular lattice spacings and crystal angles between the oxygen sublattices of Al2O3(0001) and the film(100) result in coexisted crystal rotation and lattice twinning inside the film. We demonstrate that, besides symmetry and lattice mismatch, angular mismatch along a specific crystal direction is also an important factor determining epitaxy. A generalized theorem has been proposed to explain epitaxial behaviors for tetragonal metal dioxides on Al2O3(0001).